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MATTA goodwill tourney changes venue
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Posted on Oct 27 2004
The Marianas Amateur Table Tennis Association’s 2004 Marianas Friendship Table Tennis Tournament will be played at the Northern Marianas College Gymnasium in Fina Sisu instead of the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium as earlier announced.
The 2004 Marianas Friendship Table Tennis Tournament gathers under one roof the best ping-pong players from Saipan, Tinian, and Guam on Oct. 30 and 31. It also marks the first time in years, Guam will be sending table tennis players to play against their counterparts in the CNMI and vice versa.
MATTA president Steven Lim said the original venue has become unavailable because the Ada Gym is currently being used as temporary headquarters of the Workforce Investment Agency.
On the bright spot, Lim said because of the move the tournament will no longer have a 3pm deadline to adhere to. He said matches would be held from 9am up to late in the afternoon of Saturday and Sunday.
MATTA has also changed the format of the competition and in place of a round-robin format among the players of the three teams the more conventional international team match play format will be employed.
Under the new format, teams will designate three singles players and a doubles pair before the beginning of the tournament. The three singles players will have two matches each, while the doubles pair will play one match. The team that wins four out of the seven matches gets the victory.
Making up Team Saipan are Budhi Gurung, Su Yong Dong, Chen Yin Ling, Liu Wei, and possibly Mario Espeleta and even Lim. Saipan’s ace Simon Li will not be participating in the tournament because of pressing business matters.
The Tinian Dynasty Hotel and Casino Team, meanwhile, will be made up of Liang Wei Bin, Alfred Yue, Chang Zhan Xue, Luke Lu, Charlie Cheng, Liu Fu Liang, and Robin Lu
MATTA is expecting Guam to send seven players as well, including a certain Mang Chris, a 70-something Filipino who is still active in the game.
For more information on MATTA and the upcoming 2004 Marianas Friendship Table Tennis Tournament, please call Lim at 235-5004 or 235-5178.
